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Exercise it Out

Exercise is one of the most important things to incorporate into a lifestyle. After experiencing all-nighters in the GDC, eating snacks and sitting hunchbacked in front of a computer (creds to 439 and Graphics), I realized that my physical health was important to sustain in order to succeed in other areas in my life.

In fact, health was something I tried to take account of every semester I was in college. As someone who is horrible at doing things consistently without structure (especially with limited time), I signed up for college Physical Education classes (PED) in order to incorporate exercise into my life.

The first few semesters of college, I occupied myself with Social dance, both Beginner, and Intermediate. I found Social dance to be one of the most fun classes I've taken (besides Interpersonal Communication Theory and Fiction Writing). Every Tuesday and Thursday, at 3 PM, I would go down to the Stadium to learn how to Waltz around the room, Bachata my way through hip movements, and West Coast Swing over any song is given. I may not have been the best, but it was a fun class not only to meet many people but also share a conversation that went beyond talking.

Even now, I keep up with some of the social dance people from time to time, and every time we cross paths on campus, (though we don't talk together), we share a smile because somehow, dancing connects people on a deeper level more than many other social events.

Unfortunately, social dance took up a huge chunk of time, and as much as I loved it, I realized I couldn't keep up with all the shenanigans. With this, I turned towards running. This was an adventurous point in my academic career.

At a time when structure and control were super important (directly after Operating Systems), I desired to have early morning classes that would force me to sleep early and set me straight for the rest of the days. Taking Beginning Running took me to 8AMs on Mondays and Wednesdays regularly, and this was when I learned tha2t I wasn't an early morning person.

Though I got to build up a running pace from 9:30 to 8:30 mins per mile, I started sleeping less and more irregularly, and I ended up not wanting to make it to class, due to my exhaustion and lack of energy/stamina.

So in my 3rd year, 1st semester, I decided that I needed to cut back on stamina, and start building up muscle. I had focused on gains during my high school time, but fell out of it after entering college. This was the time that I built up a lot of gluts but probably injured my body the most. Taking "Weight Training", I gained insight over how to properly train the muscles, but what ended up happening was after I finished the class, I didn't want to take another class for physical education.

It was then this semester, that I decided to take my health into my own hands. Considering that I will be graduating within the next year, I knew that there would no longer be a class that would force me to exercise. Additionally, I didn't want to be dependent on having a class in order to take care of my health.

Because of it, with greater blocks of time laid out, I've tried to schedule out my own time for exercise, and I've come to fall in love with basketball. Though it was a sport that had its shortcomings, and I felt very out of place playing it in my middle/high school years, I found it to be an amazing sports pastime not only to build up stamina but also meet an amazing community.

Whether you're a freshman in college or a senior getting to graduate, I'd say that you can start exercising at any point in time. It can take as little as 30 mins of your day to incorporate a routine to stay fit. Sure it takes a bit of time to measure out your schedule, and you may have to rearrange some of the things that you're committed to in life, but being able to stay healthy through exercise will prepare you for a lifetime of benefits.

Greetings y'all. Thanks for reading my blog post this week :) These past two weeks have been a struggle bus of ups and downs, whether it's being too busy to find time to do projects, going to baptism Sunday, or having some real talks with people. Though things may not be steady, I've been fortunate to learn a lot of life lessons through it all.

I hope you guys are learning life lessons too through all the things you're doing! Good luck with your schoolwork, and I'll see y'all in the next blog post. Ciao :)

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